The Complete Plays (45 page)

Where
painted carpets
o'er the meads are hurled,

And Bacchus' vineyards overspread the world,

Where woods and forests go in goodly green,

I'll be Adonis, thou shalt be Love's queen.

The meads, the orchards, and the primrose lanes,

Instead of sedge and reed, bear sugar-canes.

100  Thou in those groves, by Dis above,

Shalt live with me and be my love.

BELLAMIRA

Whither will I not go with gentle Ithamore?

Enter
PILIA-BORZA
[
with a moneybag
].

ITHAMORE
How now? Hast thou the gold?

PILIA-BORZA
Yes.

ITHAMORE
But came it freely? Did the cow give down her milk freely?

PILIA-BORZA
At reading of the letter, he stared and stamped,
and turned aside. I took him by the
beard
and looked upon
him thus, told him he were best to send it, then he hugged

110     

and embraced me.

ITHAMORE
Rather for fear than love.

PILIA-BORZA
Then like a Jew he laughed and jeered, and told me he loved me for your sake, and said what a faithful servant you had been.

ITHAMORE
The more villain he to keep me thus. Here's goodly 'parel, is there not?

PILIA-BORZA
To conclude, he gave me ten crowns.

ITHAMORE
But ten? I'll not leave him worth a
grey groat
. Give me a
ream
of paper. We'll have a kingdom of gold for't.

120  
PILIA-BORZA
[
providing paper
] Write for five hundred crowns.

ITHAMORE
[
writing
] ‘Sirrah Jew, as you love your life, send me five hundred crowns, and give the bearer one hundred.' Tell him I must have't.

PILIA-BORZA
I warrant your worship shall have't.

ITHAMORE
And if he ask why I demand so much, tell him I scorn to write a line under a hundred crowns.

PILIA-BORZA
You'd make a rich poet, sir. I am gone.

Exit
[
PILIA-BORZA
].

ITHAMORE

Take thou the money. Spend it for my sake.

BELLAMIRA

130  'Tis not thy money but thyself I weigh.

Thus Bellamira esteems of gold;

[
she throws it aside
]

But thus of thee.

[
She
]
kiss
[
es
]
him
.

ITHAMORE
[
aside
] That kiss again! She
runs division of
my lips.

What an eye she casts on me! It twinkles like a star.

BELLAMIRA

Come, my dear love, let's in and sleep together.

ITHAMORE
O, that ten thousand nights were put in one, that we might sleep seven years together afore we wake!

BELLAMIRA

Come, amorous wag, first banquet and then sleep.

[
Exeunt
.]

Enter
BARABAS,
reading a letter.

BARABAS

‘Barabas, send me three hundred crowns.'

Plain ‘Barabas'? O, that wicked courtesan!

He was not wont to call me ‘Barabas'.

‘Or else I will confess.' Ay, there it goes.

But if I get him,
coupe de gorge
for that.

He sent a shaggy, tottered, staring slave

That, when he speaks, draws out his grisly beard

And winds it twice or thrice about his ear;

Whose face has been a grindstone for men's swords,

10   His hands are hacked, some fingers cut quite off;

Who, when he speaks, grunts like a hog and looks

Like one that is employed in
catzerie

And crossbiting – such a rogue

As is the
husband
to a hundred whores.

And I by him must send three hundred crowns!

Well, my hope is he will not stay there still;

And when he comes – O, that he were but here!

Enter
PILIA-BORZA.

PILIA-BORZA
Jew, I must ha' more gold.

BARABAS
Why,
want'st
thou any of thy tale?

20  
PILIA-BORZA
No; but three hundred will not serve his turn.

BARABAS
Not serve his turn, sir?

PILIA-BORZA
No, sir, and therefore I must have five hundred more.

BARABAS
I'll rather –

PILIA-BORZA
O, good words, sir, and send it, you were best; see, there's his letter.

[
He presents
ITHAMORE'S
second letter
.]

BARABAS
Might he not as well come as send? Pray bid him come and fetch it;
what
he writes for you, ye shall have straight.

30   
PILIA-BORZA
Ay, and the rest too, or else –

BARABAS
[
aside
] I must
make
this villain away. [
To him
]Please you dine with me, sir, (
aside
) and you shall be most heartily poisoned.

PILIA-BORZA
No, God-a-mercy. Shall I have these crowns?

BARABAS
I cannot do it, I have lost my keys.

PILIA-BORZA
O, if that be all, I can pick ope your locks.

BARABAS
Or climb up to my counting-house window? You know my meaning.

PILIA-BORZA
I know enough, and therefore talk not to me of

40        

your counting-house. The gold! – or know, Jew, it is in my
power to hang thee.

BARABAS
[
aside
]I am betrayed.

[
To him
]

'Tis not five hundred crowns that I esteem,

I am not moved at that. This angers me,

That he who knows I love him as myself

Should write in this imperious vein. Why, sir,

You know I have no child, and unto whom

Should I leave all but unto Ithamore?

PILIA-BORZA
Here's many words but no crowns. The crowns!

BARABAS

50   Commend me to him, sir, most humbly,

And unto your good mistress
as unknown
.

PILIA-BORZA
Speak, shall I have 'em, sir?

BARABAS
Sir, here they are. [
He gives money
.]

[
Aside
] O, that I should part with so much gold!

[
To him
] Here, take 'em, fellow, with as good a will –

[
Aside
] As I would see thee hanged.

[
To him
]           O, love stops my breath.

Never loved man servant as I do Ithamore.

PILIA-BORZA
I know it, sir.

BARABAS

Pray, when, sir, shall I see you at my house?

PILIA-BORZA
Soon enough, to your cost, sir. Fare you well.

60   

Exit
[PILIA-BORZA].

BARABAS

Nay, to thine own cost, villain, if thou com'st.

Was ever Jew tormented as I am?

To have a shag-rag knave to come
demand

Three hundred crowns, and then five hundred crowns?

Well, I must seek a means to rid 'em all,

And presently, for in his villainy

He will tell all he knows, and I shall die for't.

I have it!

I will in some disguise go see the slave,

70   And how the villain revels with my gold.

Exit.

Enter
[BELLAMIRA]
the Courtesan,
ITHAMORE, PILIA-BORZA
[
and
SERVANTS
with wine].

BELLAMIRA
I'll
pledge thee
, love, and therefore drink it off.

ITHAMORE
Say'st thou me so? Have at it! And do you hear?

[
He whispers to her
.]

BELLAMIRA GO
to, it shall be so.

ITHAMORE
Of that condition I will drink it up. Here's to thee.

BELLAMIRA
Nay
, I'll have all or none.

ITHAMORE
There, if thou lov'st me, do not leave a drop.

BELLAMIRA
Love thee? Fill me three glasses!

ITHAMORE
Three-and-fifty dozen I'll pledge thee.

PILIA-BORZA
Knavely spoke, and like a knight at arms.

10   
ITHAMORE Hey,
Rivo Castiliano!
A man's a man
.

BELLAMIRA
Now to the Jew.

ITHAMORE
Ha, to the Jew! And send me money, you were best.

PILIA-BORZA
What wouldst thou do if he should send thee none?

ITHAMORE
Do? Nothing. But I know what I know. He's a murderer.

BELLAMIRA
I had not thought he had been so brave a man.

ITHAMORE
You knew Mathias and the governor's son? He and

20     I killed 'em both, and yet never touched 'em.

PILIA-BORZA
O, bravely done!

ITHAMORE
I carried the broth that poisoned the nuns, and he and I –
snickle hand too fast
– strangled a friar.

BELLAMIRA
You two alone?

ITHAMORE
We two, and 'twas never known, nor never shall be for me.

PILIA-BORZA
[
aside to
BELLAMIRA
]

This shall with me unto the governor.

BELLAMIRA
[
aside to
PILIA-BORZA
]

And fit it should; but first let's ha' more gold.

[
To
ITHAMORE
]

Come, gentle Ithamore, lie in my lap.

ITHAMORE

30   
Love
me little, love me long. Let music rumble,

Whilst I in thy
incony
lap do tumble.

Enter
BARABAS
with a lute, disguised.

BELLAMIRA

A French musician! Come, let's hear your skill.

BARABAS

Must tuna my lute for sound, twang, twang, first.

ITHAMORE
Wilt drink, Frenchman? Here's to thee with a – Pox on this drunken hiccup!

BARABAS
Gramercy, monsieur.

BELLAMIRA
Prithee, Pilia-Borza, bid the fiddler give me the posy in his hat there.

PILIA-BORZA
Sirrah, you must give my mistress your posy.

BARABAS
A vôtre commandement
, madame.

40   [
He presents a nosegay which they sniff
.]

BELLAMIRA

How sweet, my Ithamore, the flowers smell!

ITHAMORE
Like thy breath, sweetheart, no violet like 'em.

PILIA-BORZA
Foh, methinks they stink like a hollyhock.

BARABAS
[
aside
]

So, now I am revenged upon 'em all.

The scent thereof was death; I poisoned it.

ITHAMORE
Play, fiddler, or I'll cut your
cat's guts
into chitterlings.

BARABAS
Pardonnez-moi
,
be no in tune yet. [
He tunes
.] So now,
now all be in
.

ITHAMORE
Give him a crown, and fill me out more wine.

50   
PILIA-BORZA
[
giving money
] There's two crowns for thee. Play.

BARABAS
(
aside
) How liberally the villain gives me mine own gold!

[
He plays the lute
.]

PILIA-BORZA
Methinks he
fingers very well
.

BARABAS
(
aside
) So did you when you stole my gold.

PILIA-BORZA
How swift he
runs
!

BARABAS
(
aside
) You run swifter when you threw my gold out of my window.

BELLAMIRA
Musician, hast been in Malta long?

BARABAS
Two, three, four month, madame.

60   
ITHAMORE
Dost not know a Jew, one Barabas?

BARABAS
Very mush, monsieur. You no be his man?

PILIA-BORZA
His man?

ITHAMORE
I scorn the peasant. Tell him so.

BARABAS
[
aside
] He knows it already.

ITHAMORE
'Tis a strange thing of that Jew: he lives upon pickled grasshoppers and sauced mushrooms.

BARABAS
(
aside
) What a slave's this! The governor feeds not as Ido.

ITHAMORE
He never put on clean shirt since he was circum

70        

cised.

BARABAS
(
aside
) O, rascal! I change myself twice a day.

ITHAMORE
The hat he wears, Judas left under
the elder
when he hanged himself.

BARABAS
(
aside
) 'Twas sent me for a present from the
Great Cham
.

PILIA-BORZA
A
masty
slave he is.

[BARABAS
starts to leave
.]